What’s next for Jeffrey Katzenberg?

A year ago Jeffrey Katzenberg was seeing stars—and not quite like he’s used to.The well-known Hollywood power broker took a blow to the chin with the sale of Quibi, the short-form mobile media company he founded in 2018. The service shuttered after just six months of operation and didn’t quite spark the video revolution that he and CEO Meg Whitman had hoped. Today its remnants reside with Roku.

What do you do when you’re knocked down? Get back up, of course. Katzenberg regrouped with WndrCo, his well-funded investment company that birthed Quibi, and got back to business investing in others’ companies. Among his latest ventures is a digital security company called Aura, led by founder and CEO Hari Ravichandran. Morning Brew spoke to both of them.

We’ve come a long way since Hackers. Why do we need to care about computer security in 2022?

Katzenberg: We’ve spent a good amount of time and money to secure our physical stuff. These are the front doors of our lives, and we’ve secured them with Ring doorbells and the like. But we’ve left the back doors open. Criminals want to go after the assets on your mobile device and it’s low risk and high reward.

So you invest in a digital security company called Aura, now valued at $2.5 billion. Tell me how it works.

Ravichandran: You buy a subscription at Aura.com. It makes sure your identity is protected, alerts you if your data is in the dark web, alerts you of transaction data, antivirus. If you’re at Starbucks on an open network, it will secure that using a VPN. And there are a lot more features to come. It’s a continuously evolving problem. Our mission is to create a safer internet.

My understanding is that corporate coffers are far more attractive than the personal accounts of the Average Jane or Joe who isn’t a celebrity or CEO.

Katzenberg: Oh, I disagree. The complexity of going after an enterprise, with all of the protections built into those systems and the resources behind them? The consumer has no idea what they need and how to protect themselves. It’s not that there are no solutions, it’s that there are so many of them. In today’s digital environment, I’ve given up my privacy but not the protection of my…